Warrior Tours reunion in San Francisco

A reunion already? HECK YES! When you meet such high quality people, you take any opportunity to hang out with them. Let me back up a little.

about 2 weeks ago, we were all sitting around during a sandstorm in some far off place, talking about the San Francisco Marathon. Robi and Bart are the hosts of the race. Christian all of a sudden pipes up that he wants to do the marathon. We all stop and look at him for a sec. Had he ever done a marathon before? No. Had he done any training? No! OK! Zach decides he's going to run too! Bart commits to helping him with preparation (as much as you can prepare for a marathon on 12 days notice!) and of course, I jump on board to run with them. It's what I do!

Unfortunately Zach had a ton of things going on in Minneapolis, so he had to cancel early in the week, but as the days approached, Chris got more and more excited. I was sending him little tips all week and trying to get him pumped up. I was pretty excited myself.

We all arrived in San Francisco, and met up at the expo on Saturday. Robi had his daughters filming Chris as he picked up his packet and walked the expo. I turn into a drooling idiot when you point a camera at me, so I tried to stay out of the way, but I'm afraid I may have gotten some camera time. Chris brought his gal-pal Val. (sorry...couldn't resist!) She was an absolutely joy. So we tripped around the expo, then went our separate ways to rest for the night.

We met up around 7:30 to head to dinner. We went to a great sushi joint and had a delicious dinner. We even enjoyed a little sake. What the heck, right? Fantastic dinner, good laughs, and hit the sack early.

The San Francisco marathon starts at 5:30am. The hotel we were staying in was right next to the starting line. I could only have been closer if I'd have slept on a park bench. This was great because we didn't have to get up too much before the start, but with a 5:30 start time, we still needed to get up early. We met in the lobby at 4:30 and headed to the start. It was the usual teeming mass of nervous skinny people, stretching and warming up, standing in the porto potty line, saying goodbye to loved ones, eating, drinking or just being nervous. Chris had been cool as a cucumber the entire week, but did admit to feeling a little nervous excitement once we hit the start.

We went up to the announcer's platform where Robi had started his trademark race announcing. He introduced Chris and let everyone know what he was doing and where we had just come back from. Before we knew it, the first wave of Elites was off. We hung out for a few minutes as the super fast folks streamed past. As the end of the second wave trickled through, we decided to go ahead and get started. It was a strange and anti-climactic start, but there was no time like the present. Let's get this show on the road.

We were off. It was chilly and foggy. Perfect for running. We ran the first 5 miles or so, at which point I decided we should start a 5:1 run/walk. Chris is fit, so I had no doubt he would finish, and over short distance he's pretty fast (finished our 5K at Al Asad at a 6:30 pace!) but he hadn't run more than 10 miles in the past year (at an 8 minute mile pace), so I knew he'd have to take it easy to make the full 26. I also know that I hadn't really trained, and 5:1 was a method I knew would get me to the finish line. I told him he could run on ahead if he wanted, but he agreed to stick with me at least to the half.

Over the Golden Gate Bridge (so pretty) and into Golden Gate Park. Past the Buffalo (who knew?!) and we hit the half way point. We were feeling great and the time was FLYING! We were having a blast talking and joking around. I could tell that he was feeling strong and that the 1 minute walk breaks were making him a little antsy. I told him again that he could go on ahead if he wanted, to ensure that he got the most out of his race experience. He said he'd stay with me until there was 10 to go, then maybe he'd push ahead.

On we ran, telling bad jokes and talking about life in general. We hit 16 and we were both starting to feel a little fatigue. Nothing bad or unusual for having run 16 miles on no training, just starting to feel it a little. "want to run ahead?" I asked as I sipped my beer at the Hash House Harrier's aid station. The answer was no. He was having a good time, and wanted to save his legs/body for the Mt Rainier climb he had coming up in a few weeks. This was a smart decision, as there was still a long way to go. I was also thrilled to have a running companion for the rest of the race. We were having a great time.

So on we plodded, cursing the downhills (man they hurt!) and continuing our slow plod to the finish line. Chris had his iPhone hooked up to his earpiece, and was periodically calling Robi with updates from the course. Robi would patch him in to the PA system and broadcast their conversation to the public at the finish line. As we passed Giant's stadium we made our last call to let him know we were less than a mile away.

As we approached the finish line, we saw Bart standing there announcing race finishers. It was great to see Bart and he ran with us for the last few hundred feet. Rob was there announcing our finish and all the details about our Iraq adventure. What a great finish.

He'd done it, and we finished in 4:47, my 3rd fastest marathon time actually, for my 20th marathon. Not bad, and we had a great time. We celebrated with beer and meat and said our goodbyes. Val and Chris headed to the airport and I went to rest.

I met Robi, Gretchen and Domi (his daughters, who by the way are phenominal young ladies and who were a PLEASURE to have around) in the sky lounge at the top of the hotel for some drinks and snacks. We were all pretty beat from a long day, so we snacked and chatted and called it a night. A great end to a fantastic weekend.